1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to inflatable toys,and more specifically relates to an inflatable toy having a relatively narrow, when seen in plan view, center section that is flanked by a bulbous forward section and a bulbous rearward section.
2. Description of the prior art
Inflatable objects in general are of course well known. The art has developed two different constructions for inflatable objects:
(1) the top-to-bottom or side-to-side weld and
(2) the I-beam weld.
The top-to-bottom weld is sometimes called the side-to-side weld where the context requires, but the terminology "top-to-bottom" and "side-to-side" refers to the same technique.
These constructions provide, respectively, bulbous items and substantially flat or substantially non-bulbous items.
In side-to-side welding, the peripheral edges of two flexible materials of the type suitable for use in inflatable construction are brought together and welded together by a process sometimes called heat welding. In this type of "welding", the edges of the respective pieces of materials are momentarily melted while held in pressed relation to one another so that a merger of materials can occur while the heated portions thereof are in a melted state, and a bond is formed when the heat source is removed. The finished product balloons outwardly, assuming a bulbous shape when air is introduced into the compartment defined by the welded edges.
In I-beam construction, the respective edges of the separate materials are not brought together as they are in the side-to-side technique. Instead, an imperforate wall member, also preferably formed of the same materials used to construct inflatables, is positioned along the seam where the top and bottom materials would come together for bonding in the side-to-side method. A first, or top longitudinal edge of a wall is heat welded to one of the pieces of material along a seam and the bottom longitudinal edge of the wall is bonded to the other piece of material along another seam. The seams where a direct bonding would have occurred in the top-to-bottom or side-to-side welding technique are spaced apart by the height of the wall that interconnects them in the I-beam welding technique.
Even when the I-beam technique is employed, same bulbosity will still be present between contiguous baffle walls. The closer together the walls are spaced apart relative to one another, the less bulbosity in the overall item constructed.
Where it is desired to provide a relatively large inflatable object that is substantially flat, the I-beam construction may be suitable. In a large object such as a raft, a plurality of walls are spaced at equidistant intervals throughout the area where flatness or substantial absence of bulbosity is desired.
The co-pending disclosure referred to above discloses an inflatable item having bulbous parts formed by side-to-side welding and non-bulbous parts formed by I-beam welding.
A method is needed to provide an inflatable object having a narrower or substantially non-bulbous center section with bulbous sections in contiguous, flanking relation to such center section where the entire object is formed of the side-to-side welding only. If an inflatable could be constructed so as to have a narrower center section and bulbous outlying portions, then a number of novel items could be constructed which would take advantage of such feature.